Homemade Tomato Sauce (Ketchup)

There’s no denying that kids just love tomato sauce. Often, introducing tomato sauce just a few times early in a baby/toddlers life can start the cycle of fussy eating. The amount of sugar and salt in store-bought tomato sauce will explode on their little tastebuds, and they will only want “more” and “more” and “MORE” until you wont be able to serve anything without a dollop. What’s so bad about that you might ask? Well, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but, 1 tablespoon (20ml) of tomato sauce contains more than the recommended daily intake (RDI) of sodium (salt) for 1-3 year olds and more than double the RDI for babies under 12 months – thats HUGE.

SO. The moral to all of that, is that if you are going to introduce tomato sauce, you should definitely look into making your own. It may not taste exactly the same as the store bought variety, but if you introduce homemade first the little ones won’t get the taste for such salty/sugary sauce and accept it much more freely.

Nutrition Note: In addition to being loaded with salt, store-bought tomato sauce is loaded with sugar… did you know it contains more than twice the amount of sugar compared with soft drink?!

Isn’t the recommended sodium intake for 1-3yos 1000mg? My store bought tomato sauce (Fountain) has 930mg/100mls (186mg per 20ml serve) which by my calculation is about 18% not 100% of their recommended daily intake. Heinz has a bit more salt. That said I LOVE your website and all the great healthy ideas for my toddler. l will probably make this sauce as it has about 35% less salt than Fountain (salt + canned tomato+ mustard) or 42% less without mustard. No added sugar is good too. Thanks for all the effort you put into these recipes, it is really appreciated!

Hi Jo,
Thank you for the lovely feedback regarding our website and recipes, we’re glad you and your toddler enjoy them and we really appreciate your support
As for the sodium recommendations, the Nutrient Reference Values (NRVs) for Australia and New Zealand list the adequate intake for 1-3 year olds as 200-400 mg so yes, unfortunately your fountain tomato sauce almost has 100% of the lower limit for sodium 1000mg is the upper limit for intake of this age group. You can find more details here:http://www.nrv.gov.au/nutrients/sodium.htm.
And you can read more on why keeping babies and toddlers intake of salt low is important here: http://onehandedcooks.com.au/why-babies-and-toddlers-dont-need-salt/. We’re glad we’ve inspired you to make a lower salt alternative. We hope you enjoy, Jx